The Dog Who Became a Star

On November 3, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 2 carrying a dog named Laika into orbit. She was the first animal to orbit the Earth. She was also the first orbital passenger with no plan for return. The Soviets knew before launch that Laika would not survive. There was no reentry technology. The mission was designed to prove a living creature could endure the violence of launch and the weightlessness of orbit. The creature was expendable.

Laika was a stray, plucked from the streets of Moscow because strays were considered tougher than house pets. She weighed about thirteen pounds. Soviet scientists trained her in progressively smaller enclosures, fed her nutrient gel, and fitted her with sensors to monitor her heartbeat, breathing, and blood pressure. She launched from Baikonur in a pressurized cabin barely large enough to stand or lie down. Telemetry showed her heart rate tripled during ascent, then gradually returned to normal in orbit.

In 2002, Russian scientist Dimitri Malashenkov revealed that Laika had survived only five to seven hours. The cabin's thermal control system failed, and temperatures climbed past 104 degrees Fahrenheit. Previous Soviet claims that she lived for days were propaganda. She died from overheating and stress while Sputnik 2 continued circling the planet for five more months before burning up on reentry in April 1958.

Laika's flight proved that biological systems could function in space, clearing the path for human spaceflight. But it also triggered the first global debate about the ethics of animal experimentation in science. Oleg Gazenko, one of the mission scientists, said years later that they did not learn enough from the mission to justify the dog's death. A monument to Laika now stands near a Moscow research facility. She stares upward, standing on a rocket, frozen in bronze, still going nowhere.

soviet stamp commemorating laika and sputnik 2. source: wikimedia commons